Kids Company’s Camila plans pop-up food bank to feed children

CAMILA BATMANGHELIDJH today revealed plans to make her new pop-up food bank permanent to feed starving children “slipping through the net” after the collapse of Kids Company.

Less than two weeks after the charity’s closure, its former chief executive is to open Kids Dining Room beneath a railway arch in Lambeth on Wednesday.

Batmanghelidjh said 50 former Kids Company staff launched the project because there was “no other provision” to feed the children previously helped by the charity in south London.

The food bank will initially offer bags of vegetables and tinned food provided by restaurant chain Hawksmoor, but the group is looking to secure a permanent kitchen and financial support.

Batmanghelidjh said: “The most vulnerable young people we were looking after do not have access to other food banks. They have been ringing us hun- gry and asking for help. They are slipping through the net as it was Kids Company who was feeding them.

“At the moment it is just hundreds we are helping but I anticipate we could end up feeding the thousands of young people we were feeding before.”

She said she would not lead the organisation as she “wanted to keep on the sidelines at this time” due to the intense scrutiny of Kids Company.

The railway arch will be provided on a “peppercorn rent” by its owner, but the project will not reveal its location to avoid it becoming “a media circus”. Volunteers have not formally contacted Lambeth council about the food bank, and no other organisations will be formally referring to them at this time.

Kids Company shut down at the start of August after the Government pulled an annual grant of £3 million following allegations of financial mismanagement at the charity, which had no funding reserves.